Pragmata PS5 Preview. Nowadays, most big, blockbuster video games are part of established franchises. And while a new entry or spin-off in an established IP can be exciting, there’s a particularly special kind of excitement when a fresh new AAA game comes along. I felt that way for Pragmata, Capcom’s new sci-fi game that I had the chance to demo at Tokyo Game Show 2025.
For the unfamiliar, Pragmata is Capcom’s first new IP in years. It was revealed back in 2020, with the PlayStation 5 in fact, so getting to actually play some of it myself makes the game’s release next year feel more “real.” It’s an action-adventure game taking place in the not-so-far future. Male protagonist Hugh Williams is sent to investigate an unresponsive lunar research station working on Lunafilament, “a material capable of replicating anything, as long as they have its data.” But soon after landing, he’s separated from his team after a lunar quake. Shortly after, Hugh meets Diana. She looks like a small girl but in actuality is a kind of android called a “Pragmata,” made from Lunafilament. The two of them team up to survive and make their way out.
As I settled into my seat, a Capcom representative informed me the TGS demo is a brand new demo, different from the demos exhibited at Gamescom or other events. The demo had no tutorial and so I was given a quick rundown of the controls and combat. Hugh is one of the characters you play as, and he controls very much like a character in a third-person shooter or action game. You control the camera for aiming to shoot with various guns. The futuristic arsenal at your disposal includes firearms of different firing ammunition, distances, and even effects like stunning enemies. The variety in weapons provides a tactical sandbox to how you handle enemies. Additionally, thruster-powered movement is another element of combat and traversal in Pragmata. Hugh’s space suit is equipped with a jetpack that lets him dodge away from attacks, jump to higher locations, and hover around for short periods of time.
You can also control Diana at the same time to hack the lunar facility (such as to pen doors) and enemies – the lunar base’s rogue robots – to weaken them.
Wait, hacking? During combat?! Initially, I didn’t understand how that would work. I was used to hacking mini games taking place separately. “Using the face buttons,” the Capcom rep informed me. “You’ll see once you play.”
When I held down the L2 left trigger, not only was I able to aim my weapon, the hacking mini-game arrived in the form of a grid appearing on the right side of my screen. The hacking puzzles are simple enough to solve as you’re simultaneously engaged in combat. Basically, you have to create a path from point A to point B on the square grid. The face buttons draw a path in the corresponding positions of the face buttons (triangle for up, x for down, and so on). Some spaces can be blocked and others can have various effects, such as weakening the enemy bots even more.
The hacking mini-game becomes a key part of the combat gameplay loop, and honestly, it works! The need to multitask between the shooting and hacking makes fights more urgent and thrilling. My eyes darted between my targeting reticle and the puzzle grid. My right thumb had to switch between controlling the right analog stick to aim and the face buttons to complete the hacking puzzle. It sounds harder than it actually is, and how everything controls and is displayed was so intuitive that I felt comfortable with Pragmata’s combat in no time. Time will tell if this core gameplay loop can remain engaging for many hours, but I’m already quite fond of it from my hands-on time.
I definitely have to mention the Shelter, which serves as a home base for Hugh and Diana in the lunar research station. The Shelter is accessible for the first time in this TGS demo build. Appropriate to its name, returning to the Shelter allows you to rest and recover health. However a more important function of the Shelter is the Unit Printer, where you can make new weapons and accessories, as well as upgrade abilities and hacking skills. These things you gain from the Unit Printer look poised to add variation to the combat and hacking. Hopefully in that way, the gameplay will continue to gradually expand and be engaging for the player. And likely the unlocks and progression scale up as the difficulty and complexity of the gameplay does as the game goes on.
Pragamata is visually solid with a futuristic art style with cool temperature lighting that gives a crisp bluish white look to everything. Nonetheless, it doesn’t shy away from colors so those pop as well. It really shows the graphical versatility of the RE Engine. I wouldn’t have guessed Pragamata was running on the same engine as the recent Resident Evil games.
I found Pragmata’s clean visuals and UI makes everything very readable gameplay-wise. Even in the midst of combat, with plenty of pretty particles flying and Diana’s long hair swaying around, I never lost visual legibility and understood everything I was looking at. That’s really important in a game where you’re juggling shooting combat with hacking puzzles simultaneously.
How Diana herself looks hits a bit into the uncanny valley, especially when it comes to her face. But it’s fitting given that in the context of the story, she’s not human – she’s an android. Her character design, along with her personality, make her a likeable companion character. While she has advanced abilities like hacking, she has a childlike wonder and still doesn’t know or hasn’t seen many things. From some of the dialogue, I could sense Hugh being like an older brother or father figure to her. Their friendship during the game may be a really interesting aspect of Pragmata’s story that I could see myself getting invested in.
After having the chance to play some of it at TGS, my intrigue and anticipation for Pragmata has only grown. Its Hacking x Shooting gameplay is plenty engaging and appears to have the potential to expand in variety and complexity with upgrade progression. The world looks and feels interesting, with a story and characters I want to spend more time with.
Pragmata is currently in development for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S and will launch at some point in 2026.